You’re never too old to make your dreams come true.
More and more senior citizens are proving that their age won’t deter them from living the life they want.
Even if that life is full of leaps from airplanes.
For 84-year-old Kim Emmons Knor, she has traveled across the United States with one goal in mind: to earn her Gold Wings for making 1,000 parachute jumps.
So far – she has made 600 jumps. And Knor has no plans to stop any time soon.
Knor said her love of skydiving began when she was just six years old. Her uncle, a Navy Air Corps member, had just returned from serving during World War II. and brought a parachute with him.
“He had to make an emergency jump, and he tore (the parachute) on the tail of the plane. So, they gave him the parachute to take home with him,” Knor said. “And oh, my gosh, I listened to his stories about what happened, and all I could think about was going on riding a parachute.”
And then he bought a plane and my dad bought a plane, and so I was flying with them a lot as I was growing up.”
From that moment on, she said, she was obsessed with the idea of parachuting out of a plane.
Kim Emmons Knor gets ready for a jump with Skydive Chicago. Photo by Anthony Ebel/Skydive Chicago
“I was always trying to figure out a way to lean on the door and fall out so I could use the parachute,” the Colorado resident said. “That’s all I could think about.”
When she took her first jump, she was just 20, one year shy of the then-legal age of 21 for skydiving. So, Knor forged her parents’ signature so she could make her first jump.
And she hasn’t stopped since then.
“My favorite thing is once the parachute’s open and I know everything’s good – I always open high so I can float around and it’s quiet and just see the land below,” Knor said. “I just really enjoy being in the sky and flying like a bird and just drifting around, watching everything below me. I think it’s very calming to the soul.”
In 1960, Knor was invited to join the U.S. women’s parachute team for the international championship.
“That’s what really got me going,” she said. “My dream was standing under the U.S. flag, and getting in, and hearing the national anthem playing like they do at international events and winning a gold medal.”
It was during one of the competitions that she met her husband, Malan Knor. He was a member of Team Yugoslavia.
Once married, the couple skydived together – but then Malan was testing parachutes and suffered a bad accident. And Knor decided she wouldn’t skydive ever again. And she kept that vow for 37 years.
Knor during a jump. Photo by Mile-Hi Skydiving Center
The couple had been married for 30 years, when Malan suddenly died of a brain aneurysm in 1997.
She knew that it was time for her to start working on her dream again.
“We had 30 years of a great marriage and a lot of fun, but it was my chance to go back into skydiving again,” she says.
Now Knor, along with the U.S. Parachute Association, is working toward earning her Gold Wings.
“You get a big sense of freedom when you leave the plane and you’re flying like a bird, and it’s just you up there,” she said.
But Knor isn’t always alone on these dives – all four of her grandchildren, ages 22 to 26, have joined their grandma in the air.
“They’ve all jumped with me,” she said. “It’s fun to see the joy.”
Knor thinks everyone should try skydiving at least once.
“I feel fantastic! I mean, this is what I live for,” she said. “Any time life gets too difficult or too sad just go make a jump and then everything’s good!”
Watch below for a glimpse of the 84-year-old daredevil!
